Banana Pancakes

After recovering from the little bout of revenge my stomach inflicted on me for my over-indulgences in Malaysia we made the long trip to Koh Lipe, in the Tarutao Marine park of Southern Thailand. This involved a bus to the infamous border town of Sungai Kolok and from there a minibus to Hat Yai, crossing the whole town and avoiding the touts trying to rip us off before boarding another minibus to their pier at Pak Bara and then the over-crowded speed boat to Koh Lipe. It was not a particularly enjoyable days travelling! It was a good introduction to Thailand though and immediately prompted us to raise our guard to scams after the relatively relaxed attitude in Malaysia.

Koh Lipe is famous for longtail boats owned by sea gypsies bobbing in the turquoise sea. What the guidebook doesn’t tell you is that the whole small island is over-crowded and over-developed and that there are so many longtails that it is difficult to get off of the beach and into the water. When swimming out to snorkel around the small offshore islands it is necessary to keep an eye out for longtails speeding past, unless you want to lose a limb on the way! If you have not head of Koh Lipe it is probably because the pace of development here has been so quick. Just a couple of years ago it was a relatively deserted island in the slightly dodgy deep south of Thailand. It was used as the setting for one of those desert island reality shows and all of a sudden it had become the new Koh Phi-Phi! In a couple of years it bypassed the whole backpacker island phase of bamboo huts on the beach and has become a fully fledged holiday island, we couldn’t move for the numbers of Scandinavian tourists around, most of them pushing prams along the only road on the island, the cunningly named Walking Street. It is a beautiful place however and on the positive side it does mean there has never been any Full Moon or Trance party scene on the island. You can walk around most of the island in 45 minutes, using the 3 beaches – Hat Pattaya, Sunrise Beach and Sunset Beach - as trig points and you can find some relatively budget accommodation off of the beach. Our only regret was that after we plumped for a room with a bin overflowing with dirty nappies opposite our patio we discovered somewhere that we could have pitched the tent I am carrying around South East Asia at a beachside resort for a quarter of the price. Damn. At least the weather was good, we arrived after a long period of unseasonably bad weather and met a few people heading in the other direction grumbling about rain but we were welcomed by clear blue skies, and they followed us from Koh Lipe to Koh Phayam and onwards.

Transiting Hat Yai once again we made our way north along the Andaman coast to Ranong and from there took a ferry to the small island of Koh Phayam, the ferry sailing past the southern tip of Burma en route. Koh Phayam is the polar opposite of Koh Lipe, or at least the quieter beach, Ao Khao Kwai, is. Here there are no big posh resorts, just classic bamboo huts on the beach, most with the Bali style outdoor bathrooms and no electricity except between sunset and around 11pm, i.e. no noise. From the beach you can barely make out the huts through the thick jungle and even when the resorts are pretty full the place still feels deserted. The close proximity to Burma is revealed by the women wearing that powder on their faces to protect against the sun in the Burmese style and there are many Burmese options on the menu’s – such as delicious green tea salad and Burmese curry. In fact, they tasted better here than I remember the food in Burma tasting! The only downside to Koh Phayam is that there are no coral reefs around so no snorkelling and the sea itself is a darker shade of green so not so photogenic, although it is evocative of some of my favourite Subcontinental beaches.

One of the first things we noticed about Thailand is how quiet and relaxed everyone seems to be, especially compared to Malaysia where the collective exuberance often leads to a crescendo of annoying screechy voices! I don’t know if the Thai style can be attributed to a tonal language, which requires an absence of emotion in speech in order to be understood or whether the strong belief in saving face, i.e. not losing ones temper in public, also helps keeps the volume down but we were taken aback by the peace and quiet on our first few bus rides here.

Feeling relaxed after a few days lazing on the beach it was time to head north. A night bus took us to Bangkok where we simply crossed the whole city in the early morning before rush hour and jumped on another bus to Sukhothai, an ancient city in Northern Thailand. This was the one place in Thailand that I regretted not visiting before so I was excited to get there this time. Just 12km from the new town lies the ruins of one of the original Thai kingdoms that thrived during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. The kingdom of Sukhothai was eventually absorbed by that of Ayuthaya, but that is another story and one I may come to in a few weeks time when I re-visit Ayuthaya. Nowadays it makes a very enjoyable day or two to hire a rickety old bike and cycle amongst the ruins of Old Sukhothai, stopping at the various stupas and temples along the way. The city is divided into five main zones – Central, North, East, South and West – but we only visited the Central and North zones. The two highlights for us were Wat Mahathat with its collection of Buddha statues, some sitting some standing and Wat Si Chum with its sitting Buddha hidden behind a wall, with just a thin gap revealing the statue inside.

Of course we have also been enjoying the cuisine here immensely. I could live on a daily diet of banana pancakes, pad thai and red (or green) curry all washed down with a fruit shake or a bottle of Chang! The Thai soups are especially good as well – the hot and sour Tom Yam Goong (with prawn) or the rich and creamy Tom Kum Kha (Coconut Chicken) are probably the most filling soups I can imagine, even the classic fishball noodle soup, Kuay Tiew, served on every street corner manages to keep me going for a few hours and saved us a fair few Baht on Koh Lipe! The only grumble I have is that after these classic dishes I do find some Thai cuisine to be a little bit too Chinese and surprisingly bland at times. I think that is why I always preferred Malaysian food, Thailand has the big star meals but I can visit any small hawker stall in Malaysia and be extremely satisfied, something that doesn’t always happen in Thailand. Also, most Malaysian food is at least partially prepared meaning there is barely any waiting time, which suits me. In Thailand most food is made to order and therefore takes longer, trying my patience. I have also noticed the old trait I remember from Laos where the chef cooks one dish at a time, regardless of what the whole order consists of, e.g. there is an order for pad thai, vegetable fried rice, another pad thai and a jam sandwich. One pad thai will come, then 5 minutes later the fried rice, then a few minutes later the second pad thai and after all that the simple jam sandwich. Surely it would be easier to do the two pad thai together and make the jam sandwich at the same time as something else is cooking?

Neither of us had the urge to venture further north to Chiang Mai or elsewhere, having spent a lot of time there before so we returned straight to Bangkok. The reason we didn’t stop in Ayuthaya as we passed through was due to Monika never having been to the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok so we arranged our journey to spend an exhausting day wandering around the stalls of Chatuchak, browsing at vintage clothing, shoes, souvenirs, flowers, furniture and of course all kinds of food and drink treats. The rest of the time in Bangkok we spent touring some of our favourite spots – Wat Pho and Wat Arun by the river, although the coach tours pulling up outside put us off actually venturing in, as well as Wat Saket, the Temple of the Golden Mount, with it’s 360° panorama of Bangkok. We left Jim Thompsons House and the Floating Market for our return to Bangkok at the end of this trip. After hearing some horror stories regarding the cost of cheap guest houses in Bangkok we were relieved to find that Sweety Guesthouse, just north of the Khao Sanh road still offers a variety of rooms, the price determined by your choice of fan or air-con, window or no window, private or shared bathroom, lightswitch or no lightswitch and a new one – plug socket or not. We went for a VIP double which has a fan, lightswitch, plug socket and TWO windows. We had also heard that Khao Sanh road had become really seedy these days and that the sex tourists had moved here from Patpong but we are happy to report that it is not true, Khao Sanh road is still Backpackerland, even if most of them are 18 year old Scandinavians these days! The stalls and cafes and guesthouses have now spread further south of Khao Sanh as well, taking in the area of West Banglamphu right up to the river front. There are some cheap guesthouses here as well although most seem to be massive places with thin walls and a lot of noise. We have also become firm friends with half a dozen bureau de change clerks in Bangkok as we have been visiting each day to boost our collection of pristine dollar bills for our trip to Burma. Bills with even so much as a bent corner or a fold down the middle from a wallet are generally not accepted there so we have been doing the rounds once or twice a day to collect the best specimens that they have been keeping for us! We fly on Wednesday and will be there for three weeks.